Sean B. Hecht is the Co-Executive Director of the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at UCLA School of Law. He teaches Public Natural Resources Law and Policy, Environmental Law, the Environmental Law Clinic, and a Climate Change Seminar at the School of Law. Sean builds collaborations on environmental issues involving academia, practicing environmental lawyers, advocacy organizations, policymakers, and the business community. His current research projects include evaluating the way courts review environmental impact analysis under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), analyzing the insurance and finance sectors’ roles in helping society adapt to climate change impacts, and studying the adaptation of decision-making in the governmental and private sectors to changing climatic conditions. As Co-Director of the Frank G. Wells Environmental Law Clinic, he plans and supervises the provision of student legal services to nonprofit and government partners and clients. He also serves as Chair of the Harbor Community Benefit Foundation, a nonprofit whose mission is to carry out mitigation and other public benefit projects that assess, protect, and improve health, quality of life, and the natural environment, with a focus on the near-port communities of San Pedro and Wilmington, California.

Before he attended law school, he worked in the nonprofit sector, overseeing environmental programs relating to energy conservation, recycling, and hazardous waste. After law school, he served as law clerk for Hon. Laughlin E. Waters of the United States District Court for the Central District of California. He began law practice at the firm Strumwasser & Woocher, litigating cases involving election law, employment law, environmental and land-use law, and insurance regulation. More recently, he served as a Deputy Attorney General for the California Department of Justice, representing the Attorney General and state agencies on environmental and public health matters. He blogs about environmental law and policy topics, along with other UCLA and UC Berkeley law faculty, at http://legalplanet.wordpress.com